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THE BOA CONSTRICTOR AND STAG. 



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Hindoo Life. 



PICTURES 



lEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN OF INDIA. 



By REY. EDWAED WEBB, 

LATE OF MADURA, SOUTH INDIA. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
PEESBYTEEIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, 

1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 
NEW YORK : A. D. F. RANDOLPH, 770 BROADWAY. 



I<^t^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

WM. L. HILDEBURN, Treasurer, 

in trust for the 

PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 






Westoott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

HINDOO LIFE 7 

A HINDOO WOMAN 12 

COOKING AND EATING 21 

CLOTHING AND JEWELRY 26 

JUGGLERS AND SNAKE CHARMERS 35 

AN IDOL 38 

WORSHIPING AN IDOL 47 

MAKING IDOLS 50 

A BRAHMIN PRIEST 59 



Hindoo Life. 




NDIA is the name of a very large and 
beautiful country on the other side of 
the globe. The people that live in that 
country are called Hindoos. 

If you should get so much interested 
in them by reading this little book, and 
by looking at the pictures, that you should want to go 
and see them, you would have to sail across the ocean in 
a ship. It is so far that it would take you more than a 
hundred days and nights to get there, going all the time. 
First you would have to cross over the north Atlantic 



HINDOO LIFE. 



ocean down to the equator. Sailors call that ''the line." 
Without stopping there or seeing any land you would sail 
on farther south, farther and farther, until you got around 
the cape of Good Hope. 

N'ext you would turn up northward into the Indian 
ocean. After a few days you would come to the beautiful 
island of Ceylon. There, cinnamon, nutmegs and other 
spices grow, and fill the air with a sweet fragrance. The 
sweet odor of these spices is carried out by the winds far 
over the sea. 

Yery soon after passing Ceylon you would come to the 
city of Madras, and then to Calcutta. These are great 
cities, larger than Boston and Chicago and Cincinnati, 
and as large as New York or Philadelphia. Then you 
would leave the ship and go ashore. 

At first you would be half frightened, everything would 
be so new and strange. The temples and the idols, the 
queer-looking houses, and the crowds of people, not even 
half dressed, and all jabbering away in a language you 



HINDOO LIFE. 



could not understand. You would say to yourself "what 
a strange, crazy place this is!" Very likely you would 
wish you were safely at home again. 

And then it is altogether too far for children to go, 
and takes too long. If you could only fly there in a 
dream, wake up for an hour or two, and look around, and 
then just go to sleep and fly back again, that would be 
fine fun. 

Well, the next best thing to going and seeing for 
oneself is to hear some one that has been there tell all 
about it, or else to have a book full of nice large pictures, 
and of reading that is plain and easy. Here is just the 
book you want, pictures and all. It is written on purpose 
for you, by a missionary who has been there and seen the 
place, and the people, and all the things. So now you 
may just sit down and look at the pictures, and read it 
over and over as often as you like. 

Before you read any further you should look at a map 
of India. You would see that it is covered all over with 



HINDOO LIFE. 



the names of cities and towns and villages. Tliese places 
are full of men and women and children, just as cities 
and towns are in our country, only there are six or seven 
times more of them than there are of us in all these 
United States. 

You must not think that because they are not white, 
as we are, that they are just like the Indians, or like the 
negroes. Their skin is very seldom black or copper- 
colored, but is brownish, and their face and hair, all 
except the color, are just like ours. They are not at all 
ugly or unpleasant to look at. Many of the women are 
very beautiful, and some of the men are noble and hand- 
some. Then they are gentle, polite and well-behaved. 
You would think the children especially very bright and 
pretty, and after a time, when you got used to them, you 
would not be afraid to play with them. For the children 
play about as they do here, and some of their games are 
the same as yours. Little girls play with dolls, and the 
boys fly kites and spin tops. They learn to read and 

10 



HINDOO LIFE. 



write their own language just as we do ours, and some 
of them are very clever in drawing and painting. They 
all sing, too, in their own way, and sometimes it sounds 
sweetly. 

But there is one thing about them you will be sorry to 
hear, and that is that they are all idolaters. They wor- 
ship images instead of the true God. Perhaps you have 
heard this before ; but there are some things about it that 
you have not heard. They will be quite new and strange 
to you, and you will think it is a great pity such clever 
people should be so foolish and wicked. When you read 
these things you must pray to God to send them mission- 
aries to teach them better. 




11 



A Hindoo Womak 




ERE is a picture of a woman with lier 
spinning-wheel, and her babj lying on 
the mat before her. If you should pass 
through a Hindoo village some time in 
the afternoon you might see the women 
sitting down on mats, spread out in the 
shade of their house, and spinning cotton, just as she is. 
Sometimes you would see one all by herself, and some- 
times half a dozen together. Many of them would be 
quite as good-looldng and good-natured as she seems 
to be. 



12 



HINDOO LIFE. 



Some very poor women go with their husbands to 
work in the fields, because they can earn a little more 
til at way than by spinning. When they do so they take 
their baby with them and put it to sleep in the shade 
of a tree, where they leave it, while they are at work, 
swinging in a long cloth tied around one of the boughs. 

Let us look at the picture again. That is her house. 
The walls are made of clay or moistened earth piled up ; 
these walls they cut down outside and in, smooth them 
ofi' and leave them to dry in the sun. Then they put on 
a roof and thatch it with straw or palm-leaf, or cover it 
in with tiles. That queer-looking animal on the roof is a 
lizard; there are many of them about, but they don't 
hurt, so nobody is afraid of them. Those large leaves are 
the leaves of the beautiful banana-tree. They plant them 
near the house, not for the fruit only, but for their cool 
shade and pleasant green. 

Would you like to go into her house and see how it 
looks inside? I do not think she will object. So just 

15 



HINDOO LIFE. 



fancy we are leaving lier for awhile and going round the 
corner there to the door on the other side. You see the 
roof stretches out a good way from the wall in front, so 
it makes a nice shady place outside ; and there is a raised 
seat under it made of earth like the walls, but it is hard 
and clean, and is covered with a mat. It must be a 
pleasant place to sit and talk. Grown people must stoop 
pretty low or they will bump their heads, but children 
will have no trouble. 

There is no window, so it seems dark to us at first; we 
shall see clearer in a minute or two. There, now you can 
see to the end on that side. That is where she cooks. 
Look at those rests; they are for the earthen pots in 
which she boils her rice. There is no chimney, so the 
smoke spreads all about and goes out through the thatched 
roof. You see those two piles of earthen pots in the cor- 
ner. What are they for? One holds rice, and another 
spices and seeds, and another vegetables. Those standing 
one over the other in that pile are used for cooking. The 

16 



HINDOO LIFE. 



large one, standing by itself, holds water. There is a 
little bundle of sticks, too, for the fire in the evening. 
How neatly she has put everything in its place, and how 
clean and tidy all looks. Just here where we stand, near 
the door in the middle of the house, they eat. They 
never use table or chairs, but spread a mat upon the 
hard, dry earthen floor, and then sit down on that to eat. 

But, where do they sleep and what do they sleep on? 
Those mats neatly rolled up and standing in the corner 
there, at the other end, take the place of bed and bedstead. 
At night she makes a swinging cradle for her baby of a 
long cloth hung round one of the cross-beams. They are 
just as happy here as they would be in a house with 
many rooms and plenty of rich furniture, because they 
are contented, and are not all the time wishing for some- 
thing more or better. 

Oh, if now they only knew what we know about the 
way to be saved, and had the blessed Bible in their 
house! That is what the missionaries go for, you know. 

17 



HINDOO LIFE. 



Tliey tell them about Jesus, the lioly Saviour, and per- 
suade tliem to be Christians. 

Wow let us go back and look at that woman again. 
Since you have seen her house do you not feel more 
interested in her? It seems as if she were looking at 
her work and thinking about her babe, and the little 
thing is laughing and kicking and looking up at her, just 
as our babies do. Out of that roll of cotton which she 
holds in her left hand she is spinning the thread, while 
she turns the wheel with her right. The cotton grows in 
the fields around. When it is picked and brought home, 
the seeds are separated from it by means of a little simple 
machine which she has in her house. Then it is carded, 
that is, the fibres are all drawn out one from another.- 
This is done by an instrument like a bow which boys 
play with. It is then made up into small rolls, and is 
ready for spinning. This thread is afterwards sold to the 
weavers, wdio make muslin of it for jackets and cloths 
such as she has on. 

18 




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Cooking aistd Eating. 




|EFORE the sun sets this woman will put 
away her spinning, and begin to prepare 
for her husband's return. He has been 
at work in the fields ever since early 
morning, and will come home, by-and-by, 
hungry and tired; so she must have a 
warm supper ready for him. 

The first thing to be done is to get fresh water from 
the well. The well, or tank, as it is called in India, is 
very large, and is just outside the village. There is but 
one for all the families in the place. In the picture on 

21 



HINDOO LIFE. 



the opposite page you see a company of women going to 
the tank with their water-pots. Does it not make you 
think of the woman of Samaria, who came to draw water, 
and found Jesus sitting and resting by the well? This 
well is very different from Jacob's, which she came to, for 
that was deep and needed a long rope to reach the water. 
There are steps down into this, and the women all go 
down to the water, dip their vessels in and till them. 
Then they place a little coil made with the end of their 
cloth on the top of the head, into which they set their 
water-pot. This holds it, so that they do not steady, or 
even touch it with their hands on their way home. 

Some persons say that it is by carrying the water on 
their heads in this way that the Hindoo women have 
such erect and graceful forms. 

Do you see some persons on the other side of the bank, 
standing in the water and filling their vessels? From 
the manner in which they are dressed we judge they are 
Mohammedans. Their cloths are drawn over their heads 

22 



HINDOO LIFE. 



and their arms also are covered. Tliere are a great many 
Mohammedans in India. Those buildings in the distance, 
on the other side of the tank, are temples, or mosques, in 
which they worship. 

In this company of women can you pick out our friend 
whom we saw spinning? 

She will now hasten home with the water, kindle the 
fire, and prepare the curry to eat with it. She makes the 
curry of meat or vegetables, cut up into small pieces and 
fried or boiled, with butter, cocoanut-milk, red pepper 
and other hot spices. iN'ow she lights the little oil-lamp 
that stands in the place made for it in the wall. There 
comes her husband. She has some water all ready to 
pour on his hands. Now she spreads out the dining-mat 
for him. After he is seated she brings the rice steaming 
in the pot in which it was boiled, and piles it up on a 
leaf or in a brass plate in front of him. For this purpose 
she uses a ladle or spoon made of a portion of a shell 
of a cocoanut, through which a split piece of a bamboo 



HINDOO LIFE. 



is thrust for a handle. She now brings the curry and 
ladles it out in the same way, pouring it into and all over 
the rice. 

All is now ready; but has she not forgotten something? 
He has no spoon, or knife, or fork. Nol he does not need 
anything of the kind. He uses his fingers only; but he 
has learned to use them very skilfully and even neatly. 
You observe that he does not soil them above the second 
joint. First he mixes up the curry with the rice, a 
portion of it only at once, and, when he has eaten that, 
another portion, and so on. He takes upon his fingers 
about as much as a dessert-spoon w^ould hold, then, with 
a few movements, works it into a ball, which he raises 
towards his mouth and shoots it in with his thumb. 
While he ea.ts she stands by to bring him whatever he 
needs. » 

Now he has done and she brings him water to drink. 
It is not rude to watch him at this distance, and you 
need not mind laughing even if you feel like it. Just 



24 



HINDOO LIFE. 



look at liim as lie throws back his head, opens his mouth 
and pours in a stream without touching the cup with his 
lips. The Hindoos all drink so, because they think it 
defiles anything to touch it with the lips. On this 
account they will not use a spoon, because it passes so 
often from the food into the mouth, and from the mouth 
into the food again. When he has risen and she has 
once more poured water on his hands she will take her 
own supper, and not till then. If she had sons they would 
eat with their father, but her daughters would always 
have to eat with her. She is almost like a slave. She 
can not read, for they say it is not right for a woman to 
learn. So there are no girls' schools. When she goes 
out with her husband she must walk behind him, carry- 
ing her baby and the food for the way. 

The Hindoos treat their women so because they are 
heathen and do not know better; but the missionaries 
teach them that a woman is as good as a man, and that 
a girl is worth as much as a boy, and a little more, too. 

25 



Clothing and Jewelry. 




HE dress of the Hindoos is very different 
from ours. A piece of muslin about a 
yard wide and ten yards long folded 
gracefully around and fastened firmly is 
all tlie clothing a Hindoo woman has. 
A few, who have seen the way in which 
white ladies dress, sometimes wear a little jacket with 
short sleeves, as the spinning-woman in the picture, but 
that is not very common out of the cities. 

The Hindoo woman puts on her cloth just as it comes 
from the bazaar, without cutting or sewing. She has a 



26 



HINDOO LIFE. 



way of tucking it in and fixing it so firmly that it needs 
no extra fastening, no pins, or hooks, or buttons. It 
hangs down to the feet, and leaves only her arms and one 
of her shoulders uncovered. She never wears either bon- 
net or cap, and would think it as strange to cover her 
hands with gloves, or her feet with socks and shoes, as 
we do for her to wear a large ring in her nose, as that 
lady in the picture opposite does. Sometimes, when she 
is going to walk a long way or over a very rough road, 
she puts on sandals, but always slips them off before she 
goes into a house. Instead of wearing a bonnet or hat 
she loosens one end of her cloth and raises it up from 
behind upon her head, allowing it to fall in free and 
graceful folds over her arms. Are you not surprised that 
she is able to dress so neatly and so modestly with so 
little clothing? 

You must not think from this that there are no fine 
ladies in India, and that they can not possibly spend 
much time or money upon their dress, for they talk as 

29 



HINDOO LIFE. 



miicli about dress and fasliion tliere as here, only the 
fashion here is to change to some new style, whilst there 
it is not to change at all, but to keep to the old style. 
Their cloth may be of any color or any figure ; it may be 
of cotton or silk; it may be of any quality, too. It is 
sometimes made of fine lace or muslin, worked with 
various figures and embroidered; sometimes the silk is 
ornamented with gold and silver tissue. It has generally 
a handsome border, which they take much j)ains to dis- 
play. The very poorest can not afford more than one or 
two coarse white cloths; those that are a little better 
off have a colored one for best. The wealthy have a great 
variety of rich and handsome patterns. But whatever 
the pattern or quality, it is put on in the same way. So, 
too, their hair, which is black and glossy, is always parted 
in the middle, and gathered up in a knot near the neck, 
at the back of the head. In doing it up they often 
sprinkle in the petals of the jasmine and other sweet- 
scented flowers. 

30 



HINDOO LIFE. 



Botli men and women are passionately fond of jewelry. 
Many native ladies seem to be covered from the crown 
of the head to the soles of the feet with ornaments made 
of gold and silver, in which are often seen sparkling 
diamonds and other precious stones. On the top of the 
head a gold plate is fastened, around which is hung a 
string of pearls from which pendants hang over the fore- 
head; the ears are loaded with jewels; the nose is bored 
on both sides and in the center to receive more ; the neck 
is circled with gold bands, with necklaces of gold beads, 
and pearls and precious stones; the arms are covered 
both above and below the elbow with armlets and wrist- 
lets; there are rings of various patterns for each of the 
fingers; the ankles are burdened with heavy silver ank- 
lets, like fetters, several inches round; and, like the 
fingers, almost every toe has its own particular ornament. 

Of course only those who are very rich can afford to 
wear so much ; but every woman sets her heart on getting 
as much as she can. Before they are a year old little 

31 



HINDOO LIFE. 



girls are taken to liave their ears bored. The hole which 
is bored is constantly stretched to make it larger and 
larger. For this purpose three or four heavy leaden rings 
are hung into each ear. It is funny to see the little girls 
when they run holding up these rings with their hands, 
for fear the weight of them as they dangle about should 
tear their ear apart. 

The men, too, wear jewelry in their ears and nose, on 
one of the fingers and on several of the toes. Their dress 
is different from that of the women. They have two 
shorter cloths of white cotton. One is tied tight around 
the waist and then wrapped round several times. The 
other is thrown like a scarf over the shoulders. Instead 
of a hat or cap they wear a turban. This is generally 
made of a long narrow strip of thin muslin wrapped 
many times around the head. They wear slippers, too, 
more frequently than the women. These are made of 
colored leather, pointed at the toes and turning upward. 



82 




HINDOO JUGGLERS AND SNAKE CHARMERS.— P. 33. 



Jugglers and Sistake Charmers. 




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HERE are a great many serpents, scor- 
pions and other venomous reptiles in 
India. The poor natives are often bitten 
or stung in their houses and when walk- 
ing out of doors after dark. At that time 
they always carry a torch with them, or 
walk clapping their hands, to frighten them out of the 
path, lest they should tread on them. The most deadly 
of the snakes is called the cobra. It is seven or eight 
feet long and nearly as large as your arm. 

These are cobras, or cobra di capellas, that those men 



HINDOO LIFE. 



are playing with in the picture. The men are jug- 
glers or snake charmers. They make a great deal of 
money by going from place to place, as showmen do in 
our country. There are five men in this company. Two 
of them have serpents coiled about them, and are holding 
them up and playing with them. One man is playing on 
a musical instrument a tune which seems to bewilder, or, 
as we say, charm the venomous creatures so that they 
can not bite; another is keeping time by beating upon 
a drum. 

Tou see another with his hand in a basket. There is 
a snake coiled up in that, and he is going to take it out. 
They carry all the serpents about in little round flat 
baskets like that. Sometimes these men are bitten and 
die, though they say their charms will keep the snakes 
from biting, or destroy their poison if they should. With 
the sword and balls lying there in front, they perform 
some curious and wonderful feats of jugglery. The gen- 
tlemen on horseback are European officers. The houses 

36 



HINDOO LIFE. 



are veiy different from tlie spinning-woman's that we 
saw. You see sucli as those in the large towns and 
cities. You will find something more about snakes if you 
read on a little farther. The natives call the cobra a god, 
and are on that account afraid to kill it. The snake in 
the picture on the title page is a boa. It is so large that 
it can even swallow a deer. 




37 



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AN IDOL. 




ERE you have a picture of one of their 
idols. It is one they are very fond of, 
and worship oftener than any other. 
You will wonder what there is in that 
disagreeable-looking thing to be so fond 
of, that they should even fall down and 
worship it. 

That mother has brought her little boy and is teaching 
him to pray to it. See how she puts his little hands 
together and tries to make him repeat its name. She 
thinks that ugly-looking stone image can see and hear 



as 



HINDOO LIFE. 



and can bless lier boy and can take care of liim. So, 
before he can stand alone or speak plainly, slie wants 
liim to begin to worship it. Christian mothers that love 
the souls of their dear children do so too, only they bring 
their little children to the blessed Saviour, and teach 
them to pray and to lisp the name of Jesus. 

Whilst I am writing this there is a real image, just like 
that in the picture, standing on my table. It is made 
of stone and is no bigger than your hand, and has often 
been worshiped in India. Once, when the man to whom 
it belonged was carrying it, he let it fall. By that fall 
one of its hands was broken off. When he saw this he 
brought it to a missionary and left it with him; "For," 
he said, "if it can not take care of itself it can not help 
me." After that he became a Christian. 

The idol in the picture looks as though it might be 
very large, perhaps six feet or more in height; sometimes 
they are made larger even than that. Some are made 
of wood and of brass, and some even of silver and gold 

41 



HINDOO LIFE. 



and of precious stones. This idol has a great many 
names. One of the most common is Gana-pathi, which 
means "lord of hosts;" another very common one is Pilli- 
yar, meaning "the great child." It has a very stout 
body, fat short legs and arms, and an elephant's head 
tusk and trunk. 

The stories they tell about the way this god came to 
have an elephant's head are very foolish, but they really 
believe them, so I will tell you one of them. They say 
he was once a little baby like any other baby, only his 
parents were gods. His father's name was Siva and his 
mother's Durga. Soon after he w^as born some of the 
other gods came to see him. Among them there was one 
w^hose name was Sani, the god of the planet Saturn. 
Sani hung down his head and would not look at the 
child, because he knew some dreadful thing would hap- 
pen to it if he did. Durga, the mother of the child, did 
not know* this, and so she scolded him for treating her 
and her child in that w^ay. Sani then became angry and 

42 



HINDOO LIFE. 



fixed his fiery ej^es on the head of Gana-pathi, which was 
instantly consumed, and the child was left headless. The 
mother, full of grief and anger, went directly to a very 
powerful god named Brah-ma to complain. Brah-ma 
ordered Sani to go into the woods and to cut off the head 
of the first animal he should find and bring it along. 
The first animal he found was an elephant, whose head 
he brought. Brah-ma then directed him to fix it on the 
body of Gana-pathi, and there it remained and grew. 
He is now worshiped all over India more than any other 
god. This idol is set up in every house and in every 
school-room, and the children pray to it as they go into 
the room and before they begin to learn their lessons. 
This is one of the i)rayers which they say: 

"Great Gana-pathi, thou in sport 

Dost clap thy hands and dance, 
Dost crack six cocoanuts, and eat 

Bushels of rice at once. 

Like us thou lovest sweetmeats too, 

So look on us and help us now. 
43 



HINDOO LIFE. 



Once in a year the grown people honor him with a 
great feast. Then the children make images of him out 
of clay and get their parents and others to give them 
plenty of cakes and candies for offerings to him, after 
which they have a good time ; for if Gana-pathi can not 
eat them they know who can. 

The Hindoos think that this God is able to help them 
to do anything they desire by taking away whatever 
hinders it or prevents it from succeeding. They call 
upon him for aid by repeating a prayer or by making his 
sign. If they are going to build a house they make it in 
the sand; if they are about to write a letter to a friend 
that mark is always made first at the top of the page. 
Sometimes, instead of that mark, they write these words, 
"By the help of Gana-pathi." May we not learn a good 
lesson from these poor heathen, and remember what Jesus 
says to us: "Without me ye can do nothing." 



44 



WORSHIPIIN^G AN IDOL. 




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He idol in this picture is the same as that 
in the other. There is a man standing 
in front of it, pouring oil upon its head. 
Some of you will remember that this is 
just what Jacob did at Bethel, when he 
took the stone he had used for a pillow 
and set it up and "poured oil upon it." God told him 
to set up the stone, that whenever he saw it he might 
remember the wonderful vision he had had there, and 
then to pour the oil upon it, just to mark it, so that he 
might always know it from the other stones. But Jacob 

5 47 



HINDOO LIFE. 



knew better than to worship it. Perhaps the Hindoos 
got into the way of pouring oil upon their idols in this 
way and from hearing of this thing which Jacob did. 
But they think they do a great honor to their gods when 
they anoint them. Tou would not think it was an honor 
when you saw what black, filthj^ and unpleasant-looking 
objects it made them. 

This idol is set up out of doors, in a grove. The tree 
growing near, with branches stretching over it, looks like 
a banyan. The others are cocoanut-trees. Those in the 
distance, over the river, are Palmyra-trees. 

Wherever you go in India you see idols — by the road- 
side, in the palm-groves and under the green wide- 
spreading banyan. This idol stands upon a square stone. 
Behind it is a pillar, on which stands an oil-lamp. On 
still nights this is lighted. The man pouring the oil is 
probably the priest. Under his arm is a garland of 
flowers, which he will leave there. He has also some 
sacred ashes, with which he will mark its forehead. He 

48 



HINDOO LIFE. 



does this every day. Sometimes lie brings fruit and 
sugar and rice as an offering. All tlie while he stands 
there doing these things he keeps repeating his prayers, 
or muntras, as he calls them. Should we not be more 
earnest in praying to the great and holy Saviour than he 
is in praying to his dumb idol? 




49 



Making Idols. 




ERE in this picture you see the Hindoos 
at work making their idols. 

That man on the right-hand side is 
sawing a stick of wood. One piece of it 
is for an idol; and when he has finished 
it he will worship it and pray to it, and 
will say, ''Deliver me, for thou art my god." With the 
rest he will kindle a fire, and will warm himself and say, 
"Aha, I am warm," as the prophet Isaiah says of the 
heathen in his day in chapter xliv. The man at the 
back there, on the left-hand side, has nearly finished an 
image of Gana-pathi. 

60 



.\\f^^),m* 







HINDOO LIFE. 



The workman in front is just touching off one of the 
four heads of a serpent. On its body, which is coiled up 
below, there is a god sleeping. The name of that god is 
Yishnoo. The story which is told of this god in their 
sacred books is very curious. The serpent, they say, was 
an enormous one, with a thousand heads. It lay floating 
upon a shoreless, fathomless ocean of milk. It was float- 
ing there long before the world, or any of the gods even, 
were created. During all this time the god Vishnoo, who 
was the father of all the gods, lay sleeping on the folds 
of its enormous body. He had lain there for millions and 
millions of years, when there sprung up out of him a lotus 
flower. Out of this flower there came another great god 
called Brahma. As soon as Brahma was born he created 
a number of big elephants and made them stand on the 
heads of the serpent. Then he created the world and put 
that on the backs of the elephants. 

How thankful we should be that we were not taught 
to believe such foolish stories, but have the holy Bible, 

53 



HINDOO LIFE. 



wliicli was given to us by the true God, who, by his 
ahnighty power, created the world. The Hindoos worship 
both Yishnoo and the serpent on which he lies. Every- 
where you see images of the cobra. They even build 
temples for it, and j)ray to it and make it many offerings. 
When they have one in their houses, as they often do, 
they do not dare to kill it, but give it milk and fruit, and 
treat it with great respect. Besides the serpent, they 
worship many other animals. 

They call the cow the "mother of the gods." If a man 
kills a cow they say he w411 be punished in the other 
world for as many years as there are hairs on her body. 
Some of them think they are sure of going to heaven, 
if, when they die, they hold in their hand the tail of a 
cow. The sacred ashes, which they rub upon their idols, 
and with which they mark themselves every morning, are 
made by burning cow-dung. Bulls are an especial object 
of reverence. You often see them walking about around 
the temples; large, fat, sleek-looking fellows; they get 

54 



HINDOO LIFE. 



to be very bold and self-willed, because everybody feeds 
them and treats tliem well. They go through the bazaars, 
or market-places, and help themselves to grain or fruit 
from the stalls, and the shop-keepers do not dare to beat 
them away, lest they should offend the god. Thus the 
Hindoos have to pay for their folly. These Brahminee 
bulls often stand about in the narrow streets and block 
up the way. Sometimes you hear a man beg one of them 
to get out of the way. He will say, "Please, my lord, be 
so good as to stand aside and let me pass." 

They worship the monkey, too. There is a monkey- 
god, of whom they tell the most wonderful and ridiculous 
stories. When he was quite a child, he one day saw the 
rising sun, and thinking it was a ripe fruit, he leaped up 
to seize and eat it. One of the gods, seeing what he was 
doing, struck him with a thunderbolt, upon which he fell 
to the earth and broke his cheek-bone ; so from that they 
called him Hanu-man, for hanu, in that language, means 
cheek-bone. They say he was wonderfully strong. When 

55 



HINDOO LIFE. 



only ten years old lie lifted up and carried off a rock that 
was nearly twenty miles in circumference. He did tliis 
to trouble some holy men who cursed him and for a time 
took away all his strength. As they do not like to drive 
away monkeys, in many places they become very trouble- 
some indeed to the people, though to you they would be 
very amusing. The Hindoos not only worship beasts, 
but birds, and even fishes. 




56 





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A BRAHMm PRIEST. 




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HE man who stands looking up and 
stretching out his hand in that picture 
is a priest, or gooroo, as they call him. 
He is also called a Brahmin. It is his 
business to read and explain the vedas 
4;^^ "" to the people. The vedas are to them 

what the Bible is to us. There are four of them. They 
are all written in a language which the common people 
do not understand. They are not translated as the Bible 
is ; so that when the people want to know what the vedas 
say they are obliged to ask the Brahmins. These Brahmins 

6 59 



HINDOO LIFE. 



say they are gods, and try to make the people believe it. 
In the vedas they say there is the following verse: 

Creation bows before its Maker's nod, 

But muntras can enchain the power of God, 

Yet muntras do before the sacred Brahmins bow, 

So Brahmins are the gods of mortals, and immortals now. 

Muntras are short prayers, the meaning of which the 
priests themselves do not always understand. There is 
one which they think possesses very great power. It has 
these live syllables, Na, Ma, Si, Ya, Ya. When these are 
all pronounced as they should be, it is said they produce 
the most wonderful effects. Once fire was seen to come 
straight down from heaven and burn up all the sin in the 
man who pronounced them; and at another a flock of 
crows were seen to fly out of the body of a man. These, 
the gooroo gaid, were the sins which he had committed 
before he was born. Some muntras have power sufficient 
to destroy an army, and some to make even the gods 
tremble. 

60 



HINDOO LIFE. 



You will say that all this is very foolish and wicked ; 
and so it is. We know, however, that there is great 
power in the prayer of a good man, for the Bible says 
that "the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man 
availeth much." And the prayer of a child even, when 
it comes from his heart, has power enough "to move the 
hand that moves the world." 

In the picture there is a man w^orshiping a Brahmin. 
He has fallen down before him with his face to the 
ground. The Brahmin is repeating a muntra and hold- 
ing out his hand to give him his blessing. But the poor 
man must give him some money for that. The place 
where he stands looks like a temple. Many Brahmins 
live all the time in these temples, and receive many 
presents from pilgrims that come from a distance, as well 
as from the people who live near by. 

The white marks on his arms and forehead are made 
with the sacred ashes. He has a cord and a string of 
beads about his neck. They think the cord is very 

61 



HINDOO LIFE. 



sacred ; it is a sign that lie is a Brahmin. It is first put 
on to Brahmin boys when they are about eight years old. 
He is as proud of his cord as a nobleman is of his stars, 
or as a soldier of his medals. He uses those beads when 
he repeats his prayers. He says a short prayer over and 
over a great many times, and he thinks the value of his 
prayer depends on the number of the times he repeats it, 
so he keeps count with his beads. How much this makes 
us think of what the Saviour says about praying, — "Use 
not vain repetitions as the heathen do." 

The two men talking together, in the same picture, are 
also Brahmins. You notice that they have only a knot 
of hair on the top of their head, and that all the rest is 
shaved off. They are very careful of that lock of hair, for 
they think they could not be saved without it. How 
strange it seems that such good-looking men should 
believe such foolish things ! and how very sad it is they 
should teach all the people to believe them! 

You will be glad to know that since the missionaries 

62 



HINDOO LIFE. 



have gone and told them of the Saviour who died upon 
the cross for all men, many of the people, and some 
Brahmins even, have given up the worship of their false 
gods and have believed in him. Still there are many 
millions in India who have never even once heard of 
Jesus and the true way to be saved. Many more mis- 
sionaries should be sent there. "When you grow up 
would you not like to go? 




63 



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